I am going to say something controversial.
The last time I alluded to this topic in a Facebook post, I got so much hate from my Facebook friends. That was when I learned that my late husband was right when he said that Facebook was the lowest form of friendship. Friends will still love you even if you disagree and will not personally attack you. This was what happened the last time I discussed this on my Facebook.
I hate the “single-use” plastic bag ban in Maine.
There. I said it.
Come for me. I don’t care.
In case you are wondering, I last spoke of this when I was still living in New York State, circa 2017. Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed the idea, and I made a snarky comment asking if Andrew Cuomo would come to my house and scoop my cat’s litter box.
Needless to say, I have new friends who can take my oftentimes snarky humor.
I also want to ask if those “single-use” plastic bags were really single-use. I collected them, and they came in handy when I scooped my cat’s litter box or when I was changing my daughter’s diaper (many years ago) and was away from the diaper genie.
I remember having those bags stuffed inside larger department store plastic bags; not sure why I was saving so many. Eventually, that collection dwindled to nothing.
Do I have anything against reusable bags and those who use them? Absolutely not. Maybe you aren’t dealing with a litter box or have one of those fancy robotic litter boxes? Maybe reusable bags agree with your morals about not being wasteful? You do you, boo.
My problem lies in the fact that I will never remember my bags.
I wish I were in a position where my biggest worry in life was, “Did I remember my reusable bags?”
I am a widowed mother (i.e., “solo parent”), officially in the sandwich generation with my only sibling living in New Hampshire, and I am in grad school. Aside from the fact that aside from one B+, I have gotten all A’s so far, I feel like I am drowning in overwhelm on most days.
Maybe it is my ADHD, which I never got treated for because I wasn’t diagnosed until my 20s, and I figured, “I’ve lived with it this long, I know how to handle it.” But now I am in my 40s, and my old systems of dealing with my neurodivergence are no longer working.
Maybe it’s because I won’t ask for help until I am way over my head because I let my guard down after my husband died and let people help me and then had it thrown in my face at a later date. So now I don’t ask for help. It’s easier that way.
So what do ADHD and being in over my head have to do with reusable bags?
I’m so glad you asked.
I usually shop at Wal-Mart and Hannaford. Hannaford allows you to buy paper bags for 5 cents, and I do. Happily. The only option is to buy cloth bags for 74 cents. My house has blue Wal-Mart bags EVERYWHERE. Some of the bags have my daughter’s treasures, usually books, rocks, and “pop-its” in them. Some have things I bought and forgot about (which honestly means I probably shouldn’t have bought it in the first place because I clearly don’t need it if I forgot about it.)
This morning, I was looking for something that had been in a blue reusable Wal-Mart bag, and then I couldn’t take it anymore. I took a trash bag and started stuffing those Wal-Mart reusable bags into that trash bag. The whole situation was oddly cathartic.
I did not count the bags I threw away, but each bag cost 74 cents. And they all went to the transfer station.
I am out of the money I spent on those bags, and the environment is worse off.
But at least I feel better.
“Wal-Mart Bags: A Conspiracy Against My Forgetful Brain,” first appeared on https://kerryannmckim.substack.com/ on November 28, 2023.
Running Forward...My Way 